[To do] Top things to do after installing Linux Mint 15

Top things to do after installing Linux Mint 15

Planning to install Linux Mint? This post explains how to do it with partitions (it's more secure and very useful)

So I installed Linux Mint, what now?

In this post I will show the top things that I recommend you to do in order to make your computer run like a champ.

I
strongly recommend the use of the (a) Terminal except in a few cases,
like when you first update, you should update with the "Update Manager"
because you'll have to install new kernel revisions.

Updating packages and upgrading

The first thing that you
absolutely want to do, just after installing Linux Mint is to update your
packages. To do this, you will need to search for the "Update Manager"
in the application list

It will atomically check for updates, after all the packages are updated you can click in "Install Now.

Or you could launch a Terminal and put the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

The first time you do this it could take a lot of time.

Installing proprietary drivers

If your computer has a graphic
card like nVidia or AMD or a wireless connexion you must install some
drivers to make it work properly. If your wireless doesn't work you
might want to install the driver using a wired connexion.

After
searching for the "Driver Manager" go to the application and choose the driver that you want to activate. You need to restart
your computer afterwards.

Enabling proprietary packages and installing proprietary software

If
you want to install some proprietary packages like libraries to play
MP3, or to install software developed by Microsoft, like Skype, you don't need to enable repositories. LinuxMint enables them by default.

You can see the Software Sources if you want.

Medibuntu

For
legal reasons Linux Mint is not allowed to include some codecs, fonts,
software automatically. You have to enable Medibuntu packages. You just
use this command for doing that:

KDE 4:
the KDE recently released version 4.10.3, this desktop is my second
choice after Unity. I used it for a while and is fast, stable and the
graphics with OpenGL are sick. With this command you're actually
changing the flavor of your Ubuntu to add Kubuntu:

sudo apt-get install kde-full

MATE: it started as a fork of Gnome 2. Very interesting and pretty nice too.

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop mate-common mate-core

There are many other options out there in the wild but I haven't given them a long try. Here are some examples: XFCE, LXDE, Awesome, Xmonad... among others.

Internet

Google Chrome o Chromium: if you don't like Firefox you can install Google Chrome by going to their download page.
After you installed the right package for your distribution you can use this command (adapt it with the name of your package:

sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

or
you could just open the folder where you save the file and double-click
it. But the command line is more fun, let's admit it.

If you want to install Chromium instead:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Transmission

If
you want to download some files from the Internet using a Bit Torrent
client there is one installed by default with Ubuntu. Transmission is a
light-weight bit torrent client that will do just the job. You can set
it up as you want but it doesn't have a lot of options.

There are many options for Linux, like KTorrent, Deluge...

Geary

If you want to install another client for your e-mail I think you could try to install Geary. Here is how it looks:

A frequent problem you find in different forums is how to play DVDs
in Linux Mint/Linux. DVDs use a special encryption protocol, you have to
install a library for decryption, run this command that will install
this library and execute a configuration file:

VLC is a great media player that can read EVERYTHING, and I really mean it.

sudo apt-get install vlc

Clementine

If
you're looking for an alternative to Rhythmbox because you don't like
or if you miss some functionalities like an equalizer or a little more
personalization; Clementine is a great option.Go to the Download Page
of Clementine and choose the latest version for Ubuntu and the
architecture that you use (in my case Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit). Then from a
Terminal try to install it, you will run into some errors of
dependencies, but just use the second command to solve this, and you are
good to go.

sudo dpkg -i clementine_1.1.1~quantal_amd64.deb

sudo apt-get install -f

GIMPIf you like photography and you don't want to spend
a lot of money in Photoshop you can try out GIMP. I use it every day
and it comes with a lot of functionalities.

Just run the following command:

sudo apt-get install gimp

If you want to edit RAW files from your camera you will need this extra package:

sudo apt-get install gimp-ufraw

This will let GIMP edit the RAW file after it imports it.Inkscape

If
you want to do some vector drawing Inkscape is a great piece of
software, very easy to use. Here is an example I made in a free sunday.sudo apt-get install inkscape

OpenShot

If you want to do some video editing in Linux, I think the best option right now could be OpenShot.

sudo apt-get install openshot

Just heard Steam came for Linux?

That's right boy, Steam launched its client for Linux a few months ago and it looks pretty awesome.

If you want to install it the easiest way is to download the .deb from Steam.
Then run the following commands:

sudo dpkg -i steam_latest.deb

You will run into some dependencies errors. Just correct them with:

sudo apt-get install -f

Then Steam will launch and it will update.

This is how it looks, pretty sweet if you ask me:

Messenger

Pidgin

I have tried Empathy but
I had some troubles with my MSN account. Pidgin is a great alternative
and it supports many protocols, like MSN, Facebook, Google Talk...

sudo apt-get install pidgin

Skype

In order to install Skype in Linux Mint you have to install the independent packages as seen at the beginning of this blog.

sudo apt-get install skype

Cloud and backup

Dropbox

Most people
have a cloud account with some server. You can share files, make a
backups in the cloud, or just have your files available from anywhere
you want. You have to go to the download page and again you can run this command (adapting it to your distribution):

sudo dpkg -i dropbox_1.6.0_amd64.deb

Backups

Something
that I love about Linux Mint (and other distros) is that they have their
own backup manager. You can setup your backups to put them in the Cloud
or in a FTP server or simply put it in a hard drive.
You search in your applications for "Backup" and then you can configure
your backup as you like.

Some tools and indicators for your system

Jupiter

An interesting tool that allows you to save some energy of your laptop. It also indicates you the state of the computer.

If
you frequently download files from the internet and you want to
uncompress or compress here is a command that has everything you may
want to install.

sudo apt-get install unace unrar zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rarNote: If you install the rar, unrar package you will be able to read comic books in .cbr format with Evince.

I still need some Windows programs

Wine

If
you need to install some Windows software that isn't available for
Linux you can use Wine emulator. It is not going to work for everything
but you can do a lot of stuff like installing Microsoft Office.

sudo apt-get install wine

Virtual Box

If
Wine doesn't work you may want to create a virtual machine and install
some programs in it. The problem is that you must have a Windows ISO.
Download the package from Oracle's site, choose the installer for Ubuntu Raring and again from the terminal (adapting it to your own):

sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-4.2_4.2.10-84104~Ubuntu~raring_amd64.deb

Programming (a.k.a "Why don't you compile?")

For people who use
their machine for writing code, here is a list that you use for
installing some basic packages for programming:

Essentials

First of all you want to install some basic packages that allows you to compile, this packages include gcc for example

sudo apt-get install build-essential

¿gcc is too old school?

Clang is a great compiler for C and C++, it has the same syntax that gcc but it has a nice output:

sudo apt-get install clang

Geany

A simple IDE that recognizes some languages.

sudo apt-get install geany

Eclipse

For
programming with Java the only thing that you need to do (because it
will install Java at the same time) is install Eclipse.

sudo apt-get install eclipse

OpenGL

If you're planning to do some programming using OpenGL you must install the "freeglut" package:

sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev

Cleaning everything that you wont use anymore

After you're done installing everything that you
always wanted run this commands to clean your packages and to uninstall
everything that you don't need anymore:

sudo apt-get autoremovesudo apt-get autoclean

And you're good to go. Enjoy your new install!Did you like this post? Here is what you can expect from my blog. Don't forget to add me to your circles in G+ or to follow me on Twitter: @RobertoXMed

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Ok I installed gnome 3 as instructions and no errors worked for a while and rebooted... and once I got the login screen and logged in its all just black screen with a mouse pointer no matter how long I leave it

it was too late before I read Jagged Wraiths comment if only I had read I wouldn't have bothered installing Gnome 3...now I am stuck in a black screen with just a mouse pointer after installing gnome... this happens once I give the login credentials... can anyone suggest me on how to reverse it or get it working

I tried a few google tricks and this is what I get 1 I got CTRL+ALT +F1 and then login and press w and enter

I'm really sorry to hear that. The problem with Linux Mint is that the Cinnamon version uses some packages from Gnome, the previous versions, so the desktop will break if you update some Gnome packages.Maybe you can try this http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=199&t=118066Hope it will work.

Someone once posted in Google+ forum (not sure which one) that if you wanted KDE to use the command you also recommend:

sudo apt-get install kde-full

well I did that and guess I could no longer access my system after the reboot...I had a new logon screen but no matter how many times I put in the CORRECT userid and PASSWORD it wouldn't allow me back in...the only way I was able to get back into my system was by doing CTRL-ALT-F2 and running: startx from the command line...then I was able to get back in but the system would be running under the root ID and Chrome would refuse to load because of that...the solution for that was I had to upload everything I didn't want to lose to my Dropbox account, burn a recent image of Mint15, and do a new complete install...prior version was Mint14...I've been on Mint15 since and everything's working fine!!

BTW...I ran that command (sudo apt-get install kde-full) on 3 different laptops all running Mint14 and the same thing happened...I had to re-image them with Mint15 in order to be able to use them once again...